The Tune-up

By Christine Rose

May saw the next event in the OVLR Land-Rover season. The traditional tune-up where members have the opportunity to bring forth their winter stored steeds and give then a quick once over before the off-road, rally season begins. This year saw a change in venue for the first time in ten years. Our traditional host, MiniMan or Stittsville, closed their doors when the lead players decided to go in different directions. Land Rover Ottawa , the new factory appointed dealership graciously decided to take the opportunity to throw some support to OVLR and host the Tune-Ups at their location in the east end of Ottawa.

Seven Series Land-Rovers attended this year, a drop from previous years. Obviously the near summer temperatures that Ottawa had experiences earlier in April had prompted a number of drivers of the earlier vehicles to blow the cobwebs out of their vehicles and pass by the event this year. But, a decline in older vehicles was made up by a noticeable increase in the newer. Ted Rose and Andrew Finlayson showed the owners of the newer types of Land Rovers such things as brake maintenance, signs of shock decay and replacement, and how to deal with wheel bearings. The owners of the older vehicles demonstrated their self-reliance and tuned up their own vehicles.

This year also saw a first, that distracted many an owner from concentrating on the chores at hand, read tuning up their vehicle. Who wants to worry about a tune-up, something they can get to next month, or year, when Land Rover Ottawa had not only handed over the keys to a 2002 Freelander, but was in the process of constructing a Demonstration Course for the vehicles to play on. Not only was there the Freelander, but a Series II Discovery and the expert help of practiced individuals to play passenger and give guidance on the best approaches and ways to surmount the obstacles.

The Demon station Course proved to be too distracting. Nearly everyone took the opportunity to try the course out. For the adventurous, you could start in the Freelander and see how well you could do, and then for a challenge, switch over to Andrew's 80" and see how your skill and finesse could make up for modern technology. When we left in the afternoon, Louis-Phillippe could be seen with rake and shovel, working on the course, trying to fill in some of the many newly formed ruts from the day's playing.

Thanks to this year's event go to: Christine Rose for organizing the event and liaising with Land Rover Ottawa. Christine Rose, Dixon Kenner and Kevin Willey for attending to the cooking. Andrew Finlayson for keeping the coffee flowing. Bob Wood, Gordon Bernius, Francois Juneau, Andrew Finlayson, Terry King, and others for packing up the trailer. Andrew Finlayson, Ted Rose, Louie-Phillippe Gelinas for offering their time and vehicles to practice on the Demonstration course. Finally, Louis-Phillippe Gelinas, the Land-Rover Sales manager and Land Rover Ottawa for hosting the event. Of course, others whom I know we are missing for helping in other aspects.

A selection of photos can be found below: